I had a wonderful time here in Rome this weekend at the joint seminar wih Ajarn Marco de Cesaris of Muay Boran. (More on his later, right now I am in an internet cafe)

However, getting out of town is proving to be a trick. A storm in Paris meant I would miss my connecting flight to LA so after 5 hours and $100 in taxis I found myself back in Rome paying for another night in the hotel with another expensive taxi ride in the morning. Oy vey.

The footage of the fires in SoCal on BBC is very impressive. I hope Surf Dog and True Dog are their families are OK. Pretty Kitty says the air is quite foul even in Hermosa Beach and she is keeping our children indoors with the air filters on. Also, that there are major flight delays at LAX. Not what I want to hear here. Ugh.

Sorry for the delay in getting back to you, but what with the terminology wars nearby and catching up with training and business after a heavy traveling schedule this is my first chance.

It was a pleasure meeting Ajarn Marco who turned out to be a supremely gracious host as well. He calls what he does "Muay Boran". He is well recognized by the organizations in Thailand in this endeavor, has a fighting background, at 41 is still supremely fit and has a large, active network of schools.

Given the Krabi Krabong component of the recent evolution in DBMA that I've taken to calling "Los Triques", I was most curious to see what Muay Boran was like and I think Marco too was curious to see the what the KK influence on us looked like.

Speaking only from a base of initial impressions (more knowledgeable people should feel free to jump in) I would say the Muay Boran allows the fight to continue striking on the ground. Examples of this can be seen in Ajarn Marco's video with Budo titled "Kon Muay Kee, Muay Boran" (Marco was kind enough to give me a copy) -- reaping kicks followed by flying drop knees to the prostrate spine, dropping shin kicks to the back of the head as lays on the ground, zoning around the man on the ground that seeks finishing shots even as it looks to avoid entanglement.

During our weekend together we compared notes on footwork concepts. I think Marco enjoyed that we too had come to similar ideas about bilateralism and sought to cultivate the "stepping through step" through our KK training. Marco shared with me some of his thinking on the clinch and elbowing the body. I also enjoyed his historical perspective on the reasons underlying the older deep stance.

All in all it was very enjoyable and we are staying in touch.

If anyone can add any comments on older Thai systems (an area of great interest to Marco) such as KK, Muay Boran, Lerd Rit etc it would be much appreciated.

I post this here, and will momentarily repost it as a separate thread.